The present invention relates to implantable stimulation devices, e.g., cochlear prosthesis used to electrically stimulate the auditory nerve, and more particularly to a electrode for use with a cochlear stimulator that is designed with flexible ribs on the back of the electrode so as to place electrode contacts of the electrode array in close proximity to the ganglion cells and thereby to the auditory nerve fibers.
Hearing loss, which may be due to many different causes, is generally of two types: conductive and sensorineural. Of these, conductive hearing loss occurs where the normal mechanical pathways for sound to reach the hair cells in the cochlea are impeded, for example, by damage to the ossicles. Conductive hearing loss may often be helped by use of conventional hearing aids, which amplify sound so that acoustic information does reach the cochlea and the hair cells. Some types of conductive hearing loss are also amenable to alleviation by surgical procedures.
In many people who are profoundly deaf, however, the reason for their deafness is sensorineural hearing loss. This type of hearing loss is due to the absence or the destruction of the hair cells in the cochlea which are needed to transduce acoustic signals into auditory nerve impulses. These people are unable to derive any benefit from conventional hearing aid systems, no matter how loud the acoustic stimulus is made, because their mechanisms for transducing sound energy into auditory nerve impulses have been damaged. Thus, in the absence of properly functioning hair cells, there is no way auditory nerve impulses can be generated directly from sounds.
To overcome sensorineural deafness, there have been developed numerous cochlear implant systems --or cochlear prosthesis-- which seek to bypass the hair cells in the cochlear (the hair cells are located in the vicinity of the radially outer wall of the cochlea) by presenting electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve fibers directly, leading to the perception of sound in the brain and an at least partial restoration of hearing function. The common denominator in most of these cochlear prosthesis systems has been the implantation into the cochlea of electrodes which are responsive to suitable external source of electrical stimuli and which are intended to transmit those stimuli to the ganglion cells and thereby to the auditory nerve fibers.
A cochlear prosthesis operates by direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve cells, bypassing the defective cochlear hair cells that normally transduce acoustic energy into electrical activity in such nerve cells. In addition to stimulating the nerve cells, the electronic circuitry and the electrode array of the cochlear prosthesis performs the function of the separating the acoustic signal into a number of parallel channels of information, each representing the intensity of a narrow band of frequencies within the acoustic spectrum. Ideally, each channel of information would be conveyed selectively to the subset of auditory nerve cells that normally transmitted information about that frequency band to the brain. Those nerve cells are arranged in an orderly tonotopic sequence, from high frequencies at the basal end of the cochlear spiral to progressively lower frequencies towards the apex. In practice, this goal tends to be difficult to realize because of the anatomy of the cochlea.
Over the past several years, a consensus has generally emerged that the scala tympani, one of the three parallel ducts that, in parallel, make up the spiral-shaped cochlea, provides the best location for implantation of an electrode array used with a cochlear prosthesis. The electrode array to be implanted in this site typically consists of a thin, elongated, flexible carrier containing several longitudinally disposed and separately connected stimulating electrode contacts, perhaps 6-30 in number. Such electrode array is pushed into the scala tympani duct to a depth of about 20-30 mm via a surgical opening made in the round window at the basal end of the duct. During use, electrical current is passed into the fluids and tissues immediately surrounding the individual electrical contacts in order to create transient potential gradients that, if sufficiently strong, cause the nearby auditory nerve fibers to generate action potentials. The auditory nerve fibers arise from cell bodies located in the spiral ganglion, which lies in the bone, or modiolus, adjacent to the scala tympani on the inside wall of its spiral course. Because the density of electrical current flowing through volume conductors such as tissues and fluids tends to be highest near the electrode contact that is the source of such current, stimulation at one contact site tends to activate selectively those spiral ganglion cells and their auditory nerve fibers that are closest to that contact site. Thus, there is a need for the electrode contacts to be positioned as close to the ganglion cells as possible. This means, in practice, that the electrode array, after implant, should preferably contact the modiolar wall, and that the individual electrodes of the electrode array should be positioned on or near that surface of the electrode array which is closest to the modiolar wall.
In order to address the above need, it is known in the art to make an intracochlear electrode array that includes a spiral-shaped resilient carrier which generally has a natural spiral shape so that it better conforms to the shape of the scala tympani. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,647. The '647 U.S. patent is incorporated herein by reference. Unfortunately, while the electrode shown in the '647 patent represents a significant advance in the art, there exists lack of sufficient shape memory associated with the electrode to allow it to return to its original curvature (once having been straightened for initial insertion) with sufficient hugging force to allow it to wrap snugly against the modiolus of the cochlea.
It is also known in the art, as shown in prior patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,545,219 and 5,645,585, to construct an electrode carrier from two initially straight members, a rodlike electrode carrier and a flexible rodlike positioning member. As shown in these patents, the two members extend in substantially parallel relation to and closely alongside each other, but are connected to each other only at their respective leading and trailing end regions. After implant, a pushing force is applied to the positioning member so that it is forced to assume an outwardly arched configuration relative to the electrode carrier, thereby forcing the electrode carrier into a close hugging engagement with the modiolus, thereby placing the electrode contacts of the electrodes in as close a juxtaposition to the cells of the spiral ganglion as possible. The '219 and '585 U.S. patents are also incorporated herein by reference.
Unfortunately, while the electrode array taught in the above-referenced '219 and '585 patents has the right idea, i.e., to force the electrode carrier into a close hugging engagement with the modiolus, it does so only by use of an additional element that makes manufacture of the lead more difficult and expensive, and only through application of an additional pushing force which is applied to an electrode structure after it is already fully inserted into the cochlea. Such additional pushing force may easily cause damage to the delicate scala tympani.
Thus, while it has generally been thought that enhanced performance of a cochlear implant could be achieved by proper placement of the electrode contacts close to the modiolar wall of the cochlea, two main problems have faced designers in attempting to achieve this goal. First, it is extremely difficult to assemble electrode contacts on the medial side of an electrode array, facing the modiolus of the cochlea. Second, heretofore there has either been the need for application of an external (and perhaps unsafe) force, or a lack of sufficient shape memory, to allow the electrode (after initial straightening to facilitate insertion) to assume or return to the desired curvature needed to place the electrodes against the modiolar wall so that the curvature wraps snugly around the modiolus of the cochlea. As a result, the electrode contacts of the prior art electrodes are generally positioned too far way from the modiolar wall.
It is thus evident that improvements are still needed in cochlear electrodes, particularly to facilitate assembling an electrode so that the electrode contacts are on the medial side of the electrode array, and to better assure that the electrode assumes a close hugging relationship with the modiolus once implantation of the electrode has occurred.